Israel has offered Palestinian authorities the release of another 400 prisoners in exchange for extending ongoing peace talks by another six months, the Times of Israel reported on Saturday, citing Palestinian sources.

There was no immediate official confirmation.

Without an extension, the current U.S.-mediated talks are slated to conclude at the end of April.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has insisted that Israel release the last 26 of 104 long-term detainees, which Israel had agreed to in July as part of the resumption of talks.

So far, Israel has release 78 prisoners, while the other 26 were not freed as scheduled on Saturday. Israeli chief negotiator Tzipi Livni had demanded that the Palestinians agree to an extension of talks beyond April.

Israel holds about 5,000 Palestinians convicted of crimes in the Middle East conflict.

With no official confirmation to this report in the Israeli paper, The Hindu is hardly doing its readers a favour by spreading what could be a media ploy to "soften" Mr Abbas. Or is it that the Holy Land given by God is too precious to be left unprotected in the MiddleEast ? And that the Palestinians are condemned to remain under Israeli Occupation, Oppression and Opposition to Staehood ?